My Home for Christmas

Oh, hi. Looks like I arranged for myself to share a Christmas home tour with you today. Nevermind that I have done zero Christmas shopping and we’re still eating off Halloween themed-paper plates over here and these types of things give me the sweats. You don’t mind, right?

What’s that? I can’t hear you over the store-bought sugar cookie I just shoved in your mouth. Here, have some eggnog. Let’s look at this one square foot of cuteness at my front door:

I like this little spot. Nice and simple. I painted the white pine cones, but the others were an experiment from last year where I attempted to bleach them. It works and looks pretty cool. Just soak them in a bucket of bleach for a few days, then let them dry out completely (far away from pets and kids duh).

Down the hall a bit we run into my Christmas mantle which you’ve seen before. It’s still there, but the baby has pulled down the stockings a few times, that jerk.

Just kidding, he’s the best and he can’t ever make me mad, even though he broke, knocked over, pulled down, and tore up about a hundred things yesterday. If you missed the post, there is somewhat of a stocking tutorial in it, so check that out if you wanna.

Now we come to the dining room, which I lovehate.

It’s a cool room with these fun pillars, but I’ve given this room hardly any attention at all since we moved here in May. It just has a long way to go. I will now refrain from pointing out all the things I don’t like about it. Man, house tours make me anxious! Why am I a blogger again?

The last three Christmas’s we have been in three different homes, so it’s a little crazy trying to figure out new places for old things over and over. But I love this new guy here:

I found the cake plate and the oversize cloche at TJ Maxx, and they were each around $10 or so. Bargain alert! I’ve had it on my table since Halloween, where it housed my glitter pumpkins. It has yet to house a cake. But I think it looks pretty cute with some bulbs stuffed inside. Tip: fill the center with white cotton batting first, then arrange the bulbs around that for a fuller look.

We don’t have a chimney here in Arizona, so we have to leave ol’ Santa a key.

In case you’ve been hitting the eggnog extra hard, you’ve probably noticed a gold/white theme happening here. For the longest time we had a red and white theme, which gave way to gold and white, but I think I’m going to try black and white next year, still with plenty of gold. I don’t aim for a ‘trendy’ tree, but I do feel the itch to switch things up much more often now. I blame blogging for my short attention span. What were we talking about?

Basically my tree looked exactly like this last year. I didn’t handcraft any new ornaments or come up with a super hip tree theme that will blow the mind of the blogosphere, but it’s a nice tree. Even if it kind of feels like Santa barfed on it. I guess I’m feeling the urge to switch it up and simplify at the same time. Too much. Not enough? Is this the most depressing Christmas tour ever? I’m sorry! I’m the worst. Here, have more eggnog.

I love how the tree skirt turned out, if you can even call it that. Its just a set of those $4 tulle curtains from IKEA with Christmas lights underneath. Easy.

And since I don’t want to leave you without a before and after, let’s pretend this counts:

Woah! What changed? Nothing, other than the settings on my camera.

If you’ve been trying to get pretty glowy pictures of your Christmas tree and failing, here are a few tips. I am by no means a pro photographer, and there are plenty of tutorials out there that can give you much more technical information than I can, but these are a few simple tricks I’ve learned.

1. DON’T USE FLASH! Ew! Gross! No!

Even if you don’t have a fancy DSLR camera, your basic point-and-shoot should still have the option to turn off the flash.

2. Use a tripod.

If you don’t have a tripod, that’s ok. Use a stack of books or something similarly sturdy, but don’t rely on a steady hand.

3. Play with the settings on your camera. You can see the settings I used on the right picture above, and it makes a world of difference. Many point-and-shoots even have settings you can play around with, so give ’em a go. It’s not like we’re paying for film anymore people.

53 Comments

Jeni

December 10, 2014 / 6:03 AM

Oh, Lindsey, you’ve moved, like, seventeen times, added a new little blessing to three you already had, allowed someone to shoot lasers into your eyeballs, all while keeping up with the rest of life! You go ahead and rock those storebought cookies on those Halloween paper plates! Your home is gorgeous. I love the tree skirt and am inspired to that to my tree which still doesn’t have lights or ornaments on it. (But I did make from-scratch cookies yesterday, so it’s a trade-off!)

Lindsey you are hilarious! And don’t even pretend that you didn’t do much decorating… everything is absolutely stunning. I love the gold and white theme, and the tulle tree skirt with lights = genius! Thanks so much for being part of the tour and sharing your home with us! 🙂

Bee

December 10, 2014 / 8:19 AM

I can’t believe you have done so much decorating already–I always wait until Christmas Eve! Those columns in your dining area are made to become candy canes, or is that too obvious?

Your ideas are always so doable! Right now I’m thinking about the red tulle w/glitter I got at a thrift store and those extra lights. I’m gonna steal your tree skirt idea.

Love, love, love your tree!! White and gold are fantastic together, I didn’t even know, but gosh is it beautiful!
My parents tried telling me a few times that they had to leave Santa a key (we didn’t have a fireplace, either). They never actually had a key for him, though! That’s brilliant!

Lindsay your house looks great. And I love your dining room, especially those snowflakes. All of you decorations are so pretty. And store bought cookies on Halloween plates are the perfect touch. 😉 Thanks for sharing your home with us!

Your post is hilarious! You are being way too hard on yourself, because I think your home is absolutely perfect! (Although the Halloween plates may need to be put away!) Your tree is my favorite, but I love how everything coordinates together from one room to the next. Loved being able to share this day in the tour with you!

Angie

December 10, 2014 / 12:43 PM

Can you come decorate my home?! I think yours looks awesome! And your post was super funny especially the last picture lol

HA, what a great tour! I adore how you ended with a Halloween plate, nicely done! These tours (my first one) are making me a bit manic! :/ Your tree is beautiful and those hanging snowflakes are so cool!!!

Kim

December 10, 2014 / 2:55 PM

Great post! Love your gold and white theme. I pinned this post so I can try and take a good photo of my tree (if I ever get it up). Ha!

Heather M

December 10, 2014 / 3:24 PM

Your house is beautiful, classy and so cozy looking! I love it! And I love mad your narration. As always, I was cracking up. And now I want some egg nog. And a cookie.

Hanna

December 10, 2014 / 3:37 PM

The last picture did it for me! You are hilarious! Your home is gorgeous!

LeeAnn

December 10, 2014 / 4:25 PM

I love your Christmas home tour! The decorations make your home look like a winter wonderland. Just so pretty!

Oh my goodness everything looks so pretty! You did so much better than me with your home tour. You have a tree up ~ stockings hung and even cookies…..I suck as a blogger when it comes to these things. So happy to see your lovely home ~ thanks so much for sharing!

Oh my goodness, Lindsey…what is not to love?? LOVE it all, and your delivery was refreshingly entertaining! Love your gorgeous tree too. Oh and we’re still eating off of Curious George birthday party plates…from July 🙂

Ha! Glad you liked those Karen! They were kind of an experiment, so when I figure them out a little better, I will be sharing. Basically they are engineer prints of a Maya Angelou quote and ‘Forever Young’ by Bob Dylan, and I built frames to go around them. Not thrilled with how I attached the print to the frame though, so I’d like to find a better method before I post about it.

TOO FUNNY…my post for this evening is about turning the flash off and playing with the camera settings! I am the blogisphere’s worst photographer but I finally got some sparkly pictures of my tree!!!! Amazing what a little experimentation can get you…well, besides drunk and/or pregnant.

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Welcome!

Hi! I'm Lindsey, and this site is inspired by you! This is a showcase of my favorite part of any design project or makeover: The before and afters! It's always better after! I love seeing transformations of thrift store treasures or overlooked items into beautiful and functional design and decor. I'm endlessly inspired by what people can conceive and create. Do you have any before and afters to submit? Please share! BetterAfter@live.com